Erling Haaland reveals he FORGOT Pep Guardiola’s half-time tactical tweaks in crunch title clash with Arsenal
ERLING HAALAND has revealed he forgot Pep Guardiola’s crucial half-time tactical tweets before Manchester City pulled clear of Arsenal.
The Citizens went top of the table last night with the Norwegian striker netting in the second-half.
It was Arsenal’s first home loss of the entire league season and leaves the Gunners facing their first major wobble of their title challenge.
It may have been a different story however with Mikel Arteta‘s team edging the first-half and cancelling out Kevin De Bruyne’s opener with a controversial penalty.
Pep Guardiola made tactical changes at the break to rectify his “horrible” tactics and City took a 3-1 victory.
But despite the gaffer’s inspired tweaks, Haaland admitted he could not remember exactly what was said at half time.
He told Amazon Prime Sport: “Small adjustments at half time from Pep, in the end we have quality and we need to get it from every single player, which is what we did today.
“I honestly don’t remember, I’m just so happy, I don’t remember now.
“I think we have to play a bit more like this sometimes and that’s exactly what we did today. I’m so proud I have to say, of every single guy.
“We can all agree that Arsenal have been the best team this season so to come to their place and play against them is not easy. But we played an amazing game and got three really important points, we’re in it again.”
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Guardiola admitted his plans were not working for the first 45 minutes with fans raising eyebrows at Bernardo Silva appearing to be stationed at left-back for parts of the half.
The Spaniard said after the game: “I decided something new and it was horrible.
“Second-half we were more like we are. We let them play in the build-up, our shape we let them play, Jorginho, Xhaka, Zinchenko, they find the runners outside.
“We adjust a bit, Ruben [Dias] was good going more aggressive to Odegaard, we play more and Erling helped us a lot, he used his power to keep the ball.
“In first-half they had one more man in midfield, we struggled to control.”
The result means City went top for the first time since November 5 – but Arsenal have a game in hand.